This is a KSPS PBS election special.

Senator Maria Cantwell meets Republican challenger doctor Raul Garcia in their only Eastern Washington debate From the Myrtle Wilson Performing Arts Center on the campus of Gonzaga University.

Produced in cooperation with The Spokesman Review, the Black Lens, and the Washington Debate Coalition.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Senator Cantwell, you have been in the Senate since 2001.

In two decades later, you became the first woman to chair the Senate committee on Commerce, science and Transportation.

Doctor Garcia, you have worked as an emergency physician for the past 25 years.

I want to hear why each of you thinks you're the best candidate to represent Washington state in the Senate for the next six years.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, thank you so much, Orion.

And thank you to Gonzaga, to the Spokesman-Review, and for the great work, what you're doing with the Black Lens.

I so believe in the unique model that's being created here for journalism.

And I have to say, a special go zags.

Welcome to the Pac 12.

I believe that we should send people to the United States Senate who are going to work in a bipartisan fashion to get things done.

That's what you guys sent me there to do.

And I worked hard on what I thought were our northwest values to bring the supply chain back, to make sure that we were lowering cost on prescription drugs and out-of-pocket expenses for seniors, and getting the ability to negotiate on drug prices so that we could help lower the cost overall.

I know that things still cost too much, and that's why we're fighting now on building more affordable housing, housing as 70% of inflation.

And while it's coming down, we know here in Spokane that if we build more affordable housing like Gonzaga Haven, more people will see lower costs for the future.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia.

Good afternoon.

I'm Doctor Raul Garcia, and I'm running to be our next U.S. senator from this great state of Washington.

I want to thank everybody that had their hands on putting this debate together.

I want to thank Senator Cantwell for being here and all of you watching.

Caring about the future of Washington state.

I want to give a special thank you to my wife, who I call my 75%, who has been in this crusade with me for four and a half years and truly without whom this would never happen.

Tenemos una Linda oportunidad de hereditary medicine.

Our Latino only study analyst at in Washington, Representative Alice Duda.

I hope everyone watching this debate today sees a new choice, someone that is not a career politician, that is a husband, father and a scientist that is going to look at every situation according to results and bring true solutions.

But most importantly, they represent the will of the people of Washington.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator, would you like to respond or elaborate?

You have 30s.

Well, I think it's very important that in this environment, people are arguing too much on TV back in Washington DC, are spending all their hours on the late night cable shows.

I didn't do that.

I got four major pieces of legislation passed that I wrote most of very big parts of the Chips and Science Act, which I hope Honeywell is going to use here in Spokane to build more jobs and bring the supply chain.

And I'm going to keep fighting for those kinds of opportunities.

Thank you.

And, doctor, would you like to elaborate for 30s?

Well, my story is very easy.

As Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

I don't like what I see outside my door, so I would like to change it.

I don't like the crime.

I don't like the open drug use.

I don't like that our kids are not safe.

I don't like the fact our families can't afford our lives here in Washington state.

And I'm here to represent the people of Washington and bring about true visions from a science perspective that looks at problems according to results.

All right.

Thank you, doctor.

The pandemic upended the global economy and led to higher prices around the world.

Inflation in the US has fallen to 2.5% after peaking at over 9% in 2022.

And the Federal Reserve recently cut interest rates for the first time in four years.

But Americans average wages still haven't caught up to inflation.

As senator, how would you address the changing economy and the higher cost of living?

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

Thank you, Orion, The fact that we have people in Washington state that, are choosing between groceries and other activities for their children is not a good thing.

We can't afford to afford to buy a house.

We can't afford our gas.

So the federal government needs to take accountability.

We have spent a lot of money.

Inflation happens because of two things we increase taxes or we print money.

Well, guess what?

We're doing both and we need to stop doing that.

We need to audit the federal government and get rid of ineffective programs and give that money back to the community, because economics 101 tells us that if we have more money in our pocket, we are going to use it in our community and growth is going to happen.

And that is a solution that I think scientifically would work for our state.

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator Cantwell, same question you have 60s.

Well, we all know that a global pandemic caused a major inflation by cutting products and services that were no longer provided.

And now that we've climbed out of that pandemic, I want to make sure that we don't ever see that again, that we are bringing the supply chain back to the United States of America and lowering costs.

The recent economic report shows that we are growing wages and even growing them higher.

But I know hearing spoken because I talk to people here all the time, that we need more to do to lower the cost of groceries.

And that's why I oppose the Kroger Albertsons merger that would gouge people with higher prices if we don't have competition, and why?

I have fought hard to make sure that we spread these same discounts on, prescription drugs.

Now fight to have the same $35 insulin for everybody, not just for seniors.

Our ability to negotiate on drug prices is saving the taxpayer about $7 billion.

In addition to seniors.

This kind of negotiating power is what I'll fight for.

Thank you, Senator.

Doctor Garcia you have 30s to respond.

Yes.

Unfortunately, our present government voted for an inflation reduction Act that even, economists from Harvard wrote to the AP and said would not lower inflation.

Washingtonians are, unfortunately, paying so many more taxes to the pot for the Inflation Reduction Act.

And getting back a little, this is what we have today.

We need change and the right change.

Thank you, Doctor.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, the Inflation Reduction Act was paid for and it actually did reduce costs.

And the question is, if you buy a Costco, do you get a discount?

That's what we insured for taxpayers and for the seniors that were buying prescription drugs for if we spread those same benefits to a larger Medicare population, we will save more money.

And that is one of the key things that I want to do is to make sure that we are using this ability to drive down costs on so many people when out of pocket expenses are so high for prescription drugs.

Thank you Senator.

All right.

We have a question now from the editor of The Black Lens, April Eberhardt.

Hi.

My name is April Eberhardt, and I am the editor of The Black Lens today.

This is my question: According to the U.S. Department of Education, students of color are more likely to have taken out federal student loans in order to pay for college and are more likely to report that their student debt has caused them a high amount of stress later in their lives.

How would you mitigate this disproportionate burden, and would you support debt relief, whether targeted or widespread?

Thank you.

Well, thank you for that question.

And thank you to the Black Lens.

And thank you for being there in the memory of Sandy Williams.

Yes, I support student loan debt forgiveness, particular for public sector jobs, whether, we're talking about in my office or whether we're talking about other people who go into public service, or even people like Doctor Garcia who practice medicine in rural areas.

Yes, we should have debt forgiveness to make sure that the expense of student loans is not prohibiting us.

We could be doing more in this area.

And I think it's very important to try to achieve that kind of perspective.

I went to school on a Pell Grant and at that time, Pell played, paid for much more of the college education than today's Pell.

But that helped me go from working class to middle class, and we need to create those same opportunities today for more young people.

I believe that one way to do that is to create more opportunities for running start programs for people and target them to schools that would help get more minorities into college.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, you have one minute.

Thank you.

You know, I arrived in this country as, an 11 year old skinny kid that didn't speak a word of English and was lucky enough to live out that American dream.

And along the way, there were people that helped me achieve that goal.

So as your next United States Senator, of course, I am going to do everything that I can to bring the resources necessary for marginalized cultures to get to an even playing field.

We have two responsibilities here.

First of all, to educate our country about the fact that these marginalized cultures exist, that they don't have the same resources.

And second of all, to make sure that the education resources are there so all these individuals can get that education and get out of that marginalized system that they've been a part of.

Thank you.

Senator Cantwell would you like to respond?

Well, I just want to add that I'm a huge fan of our Carl Perkins system and anything you can do to drive down the skills trainings to our high school level apprenticeship in the United States of America should be our goal.

In an information age where there are so many technical jobs, literally six figure jobs with two year degrees.

But if we teach our math and science in our high schools and help provide running start, some of these can help in the enormous amount of skills that we need in the United States of America.

Lots of jobs.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, would you like to respond?

30s.

Well, I it seems I had Senator Cantwell I are on the same page on this.

You know, apprenticeships are the way of the future.

You don't have to go to college to have a great job and to support your family and have a great life.

And that education, I think, is lacking in the junior high level.

We need to increase that education.

And to answer the question completely, certainly I would support, student loan relief, specifically, for public service after.

Thank you.

That education.

All right.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

From student debt I want to talk about national debt now.

The U.S. national debt has surpassed $35 trillion.

In the current fiscal year the federal government has spent about $1.9 trillion more than it's collected in revenue.

And we haven't had a balanced budget since the turn of the 21st century.

How concerned are each of you about the nation's debt and what should Congress do about it?

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

Yeah, very concerned about the nation's debt.

Look, I came from humble beginnings, and we didn't have a lot of money, but we always learned that you spend as much as you have.

And right now, we're in a situation where Americans are putting their groceries on credit cards.

And us, as a federal government, should be accountable to make sure that we are not wasting the taxpayers money.

That's why I propose an audit of the federal government.

And I'm not proposing a big bureaucratic, group that comes in and audits the federal government now.

I'm proposing to a single accountant with a pencil behind his ear that gets down on a table and says, you know what?

This is an effective, ineffective program, and we need to eliminate it so we could bring that money back to the community.

Thank you, Senator Cantwell.

Well, it's the debt and deficit are an issue.

And in the pandemic, we had to do some things that took care of people's lives and help sustain economies for the future.

In fact, the United States has come out of that pandemic with more resources and ability because we did that.

But what we don't want to do now, as, former President Trump is suggesting, is tariff, tariff, tariff and put, back the 2017 bill that would, as economists are saying, add somewhere between 7 and 8, $14 trillion to our debt deficit.

I believe in PayGo.

I believe in making sure, like the Inflation Reduction Act, that as we do policy that we pay for it as we go.

And the reason I'm so enthralled over our big opportunities on apprentice is because you can grow the U.S. economy and help pay down the debt if we train and skill Americans.

Bet on Americans, and they will do the rest.

Thank you.

Senator.

I would just note the discretionary spending that Congress approves each year accounts for about a quarter of the nation's budget.

Mandatory spending on programs like Social Security, Medicare, a bigger portion of that Doctor Garcia, would you like, 30s.

To respond?

Yes.

Americans.

You know, we don't do well when they take our rights away and, Medicare and Social Security are things that at the end of our life, at the end of our big effort, we expect to get.

So I will be a senator that supports those programs and finds the funding for it.

And my answer to reducing the debt is stop spending money that we don't have for ineffective programs.

Thank you.

Senator Cantwell, would you like to respond?

Well, I'm going to fight to protect Social Security and Medicare and Project 2025, taking aim at some of this is disturbing to me, but I do think that there are, things that our state has done in health care that should lead the way to help build a value based health care delivery system and help us look at costs in the future.

If people would do more of that and reward good delivery of health care, I think there are things that we could do in our system today.

Thank you.

All right.

I'd like to turn now to abortion, one of the biggest topics in this year's presidential election, certainly.

For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court guaranteed a nationwide right to abortion, with states allowed to restrict the procedure later in pregnancy, except when a pregnant woman's life or health was in danger.

Since the court overturned those protections in 2022, some states like Idaho, have restricted abortion.

What should Congress do in response to this new reality after the Dobbs decision?

Senator Cantwell.

Well, I fully support restoring our rights.

This is something that should be between a doctor and the patient, not people in Washington, D.C. this is 50 plus years of a right that was upheld by our courts, that was stripped away with the decision of the Supreme Court.

And it is affecting the state of Washington.

I produced a national report that showed how people here coming to our state and people from Idaho are literally creating a demand on our system that's hard to serve.

I want women to have their rights back, and I will fight to have Roe v Wade restored as the law of the land.

When I'm returned to the United States Senate with your help.

Thank you, Senator.

Doctor Garcia, you have one minute.

Washington State is a pro-choice state dictated by the voters of Washington state.

And I, as your United States senator, I am going to represent and defend that every day.

I agree that the reversal of this law has caused burden in Washington state from having patients from other states come to have abortions here, going back to Americans not liking taking our rights away.

You know, in my experience, I have been there with the mother whose daughter was raped by her uncle.

I have been there with the husband whose wife is dying of an ectopic pregnancy, of a fatal demise, or other ObGyn emergencies, and I've had to send them to the operating room to terminate the pregnancy, or the woman would die.

This is who I am.

This is my experience and this is how I am going to represent you as your United States Senator.

Thank you.

Senator Cantwell, would you like to respond?

Well, it is sad that people are losing their life over this, as we saw in Georgia, and we need people who are going to stand up and fight for this right to be restored.

The challenges that we face is that the Republican Party, except for two people in the United States Senate, have basically decided that they want this to be up to individual states.

I'm saying that this is a right that women should have at a national level, that I'm going to spend my time advocating for it to pass into federal law.

Thank you, Senator.

Would you like to respond?

Yes.

The Dobbs decision created a lot of anxiety and discomfort throughout the country, and I want the women of Washington to understand my stance.

I'm not asking you to trust every Republican, just as I wouldn't ask you to trust every Democrat.

I'm asking you to trust me.

I am going to defend this state as a pro-choice state every day as a U.S. senator representing Washington state.

Thank you.

Doctor, I, I'd like to ask one follow up on this topic.

There's, of course, been proposed legislation that would restore Roe v Wade style protections.

At the federal level, you both have spoken to that.

Senator Cantwell, would you vote for a bill that restores those protections but allows for state restrictions, States to enact their own restrictions after fetal viability?

We have laws on the books to do that.

Now in the confusion, and we had a hearing in Washington about this in Idaho is a perfect example of why I wouldn't support that.

Please put Roe v Wade back into federal statute.

This issue now is have a woman a week being transported from Idaho to Washington.

She may want to keep the pregnancy.

She's walking into a facility and asking for help.

And they're saying because they're worried about their cases against them are saying, please get on a plane and go to Seattle.

And so even though people would say they have exemptions or they have specification, the confusion that is here today is not tolerable.

People should not be losing their lives over it, and people shouldn't be losing pregnancies that they want to keep.

Thank you Senator.

I just want to note the clock, gave you 60s and will do the same for Doctor Garcia.

I won't ask you another follow up on this topic here, but, Doctor Garcia, you've said you would not vote for federal legislation that further restricts abortion nationwide.

Would you vote for the kind of legislation Senator Cantwell is talking about that would restore those protections?

You know, as a physician and representing the state of Washington, I would say yes to answer your question.

And let me explain that, I think that there should be a safety net in our country to make sure, the women's have that access if they choose that up to fetal viability.

And this is the the law in Washington state.

So being the senator from Washington state and being a physician with lived experience in situations that need that termination, yes, I would support it.

And I would add this.

I would sit with my Republican colleagues and explain this, and I would ask you, who do you think those Republican colleagues are going to listen to more the doctor with lived experience or a Democrat?

Thank you.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

We need to move on.

We have a lot to get to here.

We're going to turn back to the screen again.

We have a question from a Gonzaga student.

Hi.

My name is Anthony Di Mauro, and I am a student at Gonzaga University.

And here's my question.

What role do you believe the federal government should play in combating climate change?

And what is your plan in reducing carbon emissions and promote clean energy here in Washington state?

Thank you.

All right.

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

You have 60s.

You know, we're lucky to live in one of the cleanest places on earth.

And we should all, bind together to make sure that our children have the same clean place, not only here, but everywhere in the world.

So I am a, big proponent of keeping our environment clean.

I am a proponent of clean energy.

I love the fact that we have hydroelectric energy in our state that's renewable, that 70% of our energy.

I am a proponent of nuclear energy in our state.

The one we have and more that we could, go after.

But I want to also bring up that if we are the cleanest place on earth, I am in support of bringing our manufacturing and our industries back to America, where we care about the environment and stop outsourcing our jobs to places that really don't care as much.

Thank you.

Doc.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

Senator Campbell you have one.

Yeah, I was I was smiling at, Doctor Garcia's response earlier because, you know, I serve with two, physicians in the Senate.

They don't support, establishing Roe v Wade.

And I really like my colleagues, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, but they haven't convinced many other people in their caucus, either.

So, for the fighting and can you believe we're fighting over IVF?

But that's what we're doing because we believe in letting families have IVF treatment.

I believe that climate change is real.

I believe that us passing the Climate Reduction Act set us up in the state of Washington to not only innovate here and diversify our energy sources, but we are leading the world in some of the most innovative energy.

Whether it's a hydrogen hub or smart grid or battery technology in Moses Lake, or some of the innovation that's being done at PNL lab.

We are on the next generation of energy front that is going to help us meet these climate goals.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, would you like to respond?

Yes.

Well, first of all, I want everyone to know that I have participated in IVF, so of course I strongly support it.

I'm also in favor of hydrogen.

And we are lucky, as, Senator Cantwell stated, to have PNL here in our state, one of the only 13 labs in the country.

And we want to be in the forefront the leaders in climate change in the country.

And as your United States Senator, I will be your champion of it.

Thank you, Senator Cantwell.

Well, with these devastating storms, I'm trying to do everything I can to prove to people that this is impacting our taxpayers.

So in a bipartisan effort, Susan Collins and I asked the Government Accountability Office to give us this estimate just this two weeks ago, came out and said, it's costing us trillions of dollars.

So our state setting up people on innovation to solve the thorniest problems, like how to get battery technology to last longer, how to transfer a charge faster, how to fuel airplanes, which I authored the language, all things that are going to help us diversify.

Thank you Senator.

Okay.

Now, as the country transitions, pardon me, to more renewable energy sources, the Columbia Basin has become an increasingly important source of hydropower.

But the Yakama Nation and other northwest tribes say that existing infrastructure like the lower snake River dams and new developments like the Golden Dale Energy Storage Project damaged the national, the natural world and pardon me in other ways and violate the treaties they signed with the federal government.

How should Congress balance the country's energy needs with the rights of tribal nations?

Senator Cantwell?

Well, it's so important that we do everything we can because we now need about 30% more power than we have today.

That is how much our state is going to grow.

And I want to do everything we can to keep the historic, low energy electricity costs that we have had it as a state.

It has built our economy over and over and over again.

And so but we have to live up to our treaty obligations for abundant salmon.

And that is why I fought hard against Bristol Bay gold mine in Alaska, that would have destroyed, salmon, sockeye and Chinook runs, probably some of the largest runs in the world.

And yet people were going to build a gold mine and destroy that.

And why Ive have fought here for a record amount of salmon funding to remove culvert barriers and to build our hatchery fish so that we can take some of the pressure off of the system.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, you have one minute.

Well, I pay a lot of electricity in my house, but we have five children, so I. I understand that there is never enough.

And this is why, I am very much in favor of new ideas and expanding our nuclear program.

Even here in Washington.

If we build 20 new nuclear plants in our country, we would have, more energy than we would know what to do with.

The Snake River dams is something that I have studied because it has been an issue, for a long time.

And I wanted to make sure that I was being fair, to both sides.

I work at the only hospital in native land here in Washington.

I'm very familiar, with the tribes and with the lack of resources and their culture that wants to keep, their culture alive.

So the snake River dams, actually.

Doctor Garcia, I'm sorry.

We're out of time.

Take another chance.

Senator Cantwell, if you'd like to respond.

I think I was very involved in something that was bipartisan and brought people together from the bottom up, called the Yakima Basin Project.

It was, how do we get more water in Yakima but preserve fish?

So literally farmers, tribal members, environmentalists, all got together and agreed on how to build more capacity for our region.

And I thought that was an exemplary, way to make progress on these thorny issues.

Thank you, Senator and Doctor Garcia.

Yeah, I agree.

And and as long as we depend on the energy, made by the snake River dams for agriculture in our state, we need to find a balance and make sure that those snake River dams, which they've really worked hard to preserve, salmon, stay open and stay active.

So we could have energy in eastern Washington.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

I'd like to turn now to foreign policy.

Yesterday marked one year since Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed some 1200 people in Israel and took almost 250 hostages, nearly 100 of whom remain in Gaza today.

In the years since, Israeli forces have killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza and displaced virtually the entire population of that territory.

While our country has provided about $18 billion in military aid to Israel.

What role should the United States have in that conflict as it risks spreading now to other parts of the Middle East?

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

The role that the United States should have in the Middle East is to find peace.

Our, strongest condolences to everyone.

From a year ago yesterday that was involved in, that massacre.

Israel has always been a strong ally of the United States.

I would say that has been a curtain protecting the United States from terrorist activities of terrorist organizations that want the annihilation of Israel and the United States.

So we should support our allies, but our focus should be to find peace.

This war is not helping anyone.

Not the Palestinians, not the Israelis, and even not the Iranians.

I do agree with our presence there in the Middle East and our support of our ally, but our purpose should be to find peace.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

Senator Cantwell, we have one minute.

It's so sad yesterday to witness the one year anniversary of this massacre.

An attack in Israel that not only still has captured hostages, but captured U.S. citizens.

We need to do everything we can to bring those hostages back home.

The United States supports Israel because it's a democracy in the Middle East.

We are standing next to an ally.

So when we supported the Iron Dome and it helped defend them against the missiles from Iran, I was glad that we have done that.

But we also, as President Biden has outlined, need to achieve a peace and ceasefire and permanent two state solution in the Middle East.

I believe that that's what we need to do.

And I think we need to get the neighboring community, neighboring states to help.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, would you like to respond or elaborate?

Yeah.

We have a stark difference here between the senator and I.

She voted to release $100 billion in freeze assets to the Iranians, which in turn, Iran used to cause October 7th.

As your United States senator, I wouldn't have voted for that.

Iran is a an organization that doesn't want a government that doesn't want the benefit of world peace of the United States or Israel.

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, that's just inaccurate.

We didn't give a $100 billion to Iran.

I did support the agreement that would have said the United States and other partners of the Security Council should go to Iran and be able to say that they were not developing nuclear weapons.

And yes, I trust the Pacific Northwest Lab, one of the leading institutions of detection in our nation, to help us figure that out.

And so what we did do, though, is say that we are going to have continued sanctions on Iran.

Thank you.

On on oil.

We'll talk more about that.

Maybe show why that.

So helpful.

Thank you, Senator.

I want to talk now about Ukraine and Russia.

It's been more than a decade now since Russia seized the Ukrainian territory of Crimea.

And more than two years since Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine.

In that time, Congress has appropriated about $175 billion in response, including more than $100 billion in aid to the Ukrainian government.

What should our country's role be in that conflict, and would you support a deal to end the war effort required Ukraine to give up any part of its territory.

Senator Cantwell?

Well, I have supported our efforts to stabilize Ukraine from a Russian aggressor who basically in Putin's efforts to attack Ukraine, we need to stand up to that aggression.

We are not only protecting Ukraine, we are protecting Europe.

We are protecting our NATO allies.

And it's so important that we continue to help Ukraine.

I'm not for auditing what we're doing in helping Ukraine.

I'm for standing up for Ukraine.

We have about 2000 Ukrainian refugees that live right here in Spokane.

And we are standing with them because democracy and aggressors are the things we want to stop.

Aggressors will stop democracy, continue.

Thank you, Senator.

Doctor Garcia.

Well, I came from Cuba, which was, tyrannical government.

I could put you there.

You're.

That's the only way to to live that experience.

So my heart is with the Ukrainian people.

To see, an aggressor, a tyrannical government try to take them over.

And I think the United States was correct in supporting the Ukrainian people.

I differ with Senator Cantwell when she says that she doesn't believe in auditing the money that we're sending to Ukraine.

And I think that one of my colleagues in the Senate are asking for is accountability and transparency.

We just want to make sure that the money that we are using with taxpayers money to help a country succeed, we have transparency and accountability on.

Thank you.

Senator Cantwell, would you like to respond?

My father served in World War Two, as did his brother, who was a P.O.W.. And I know what Rand Paul is up to.

He wants to audit this money and be an isolationist.

We have to stand up to Putin and his aggressions.

I believe that right now we should join more of a sanction, oversight and transparency.

Us continuing to get India and China to put sanctions on Russia is the way to go.

Thank you, Senator and Doctor Garcia, you have 30s.

Yeah.

I, I again, I'm going to inculcate that as a government to earn the trust of all our citizens who are seeing all this money go out when we have so many problems, such as fentanyl, in our backyard.

We need accountability and transparency.

And I would be on the side favoring auditing this money and making sure that is going to the proper places in Ukraine.

All right.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

You mentioned fentanyl, and we'l First I want to talk about immigration and the border.

Congress has failed to pass major immigration reform since 1986.

As a result, the US law has not kept up with the changing reality on the ground.

An estimated 11 million people live in the country without authorization, despite playing important roles in the US economy, including in Washington's agricultural industry.

And since the pandemic abated, a record number of people have crossed the border illegally to seek asylum, beginning a legal process that can take years to conclude.

If elected, what would you do to address immigration and the border?

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

Any sovereign country should have the right to vet who comes in and out of their country.

And when we lose the right to vet who comes in and out of our country, we lose that sovereignty.

Not only are we not vetting who comes in and out of our country, but we're allowing drugs and crime to come into our country.

The embarrassing thing for our American government is that we don't know who's coming into our country, but the cartels do know exactly who's coming into our country.

And a lot of those people, owe of them money back for being here.

I'm an immigrant to this country.

I think this country was created by immigrants with the fire to find the best place in the world for their children, and that created the greatest country in the world.

And I will always support immigration.

But we need to have better leadership and discipline at our border, so we remain a sovereign nation.

Thank you.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, I have voted for probably four different bipartisan bills.

And literally the partners are very right and very left member.

So Larry Craig from Idaho, people remember him and Ted Kennedy, not exactly like kindred spirits on policy or even now, Kirsten Cinema and James Lankford, our other times, John McCain and and and Ted Kennedy and every time even though 78 or 80 votes out of the United States Senate, they would be killed by conservatives who just didn't want to do anything to allow for a legal process to be established for the workforce that we depend on in Washington, particularly in central Washington.

So I do support a immigration policy that will allow us to bring people from Mexico who want to work here and return to Mexico, and I will do everything we can to continue to fight.

And getting appropriations for the border.

Thank you, Senator.

Doctor Garcia, you have 30s to respond.

I also want to talk about, certain topics of immigration that we may not come back to.

I am all in favor of the dreamers, DACA kids that crossed that border.

Not having 18 years of age to be given citizenship yesterday.

Okay.

To the other people that have been here for years and have paid taxes and have been reputable people.

I would give a permanent residency to.

But if you come to this country to commit crime, you're out.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

I want to ask a follow up question on this.

I think this is something we both have.

You both have thoughts on.

Former president Trump and his running mate have repeated false rumors about Haitian immigrants who've lawfully settled in an Ohio town.

Doctor Garcia, as you mentioned, you yourself left another Caribbean nation as a child to come to the U.S..

I'd like to know what each of you makes of the rhetoric about immigrants, in particular in this race.

And I'll start with Doctor Garcia.

Well, I am going to be a champion of immigrants.

I am one.

I came to this country searching for that American dream.

And you know what?

Everyone in this audience, it may not have been you, but it may have been your ancestors that had the same fire as my mother to come and work three jobs so I could succeed.

So I am always going to be a champion of immigration in this country.

I believe that we have a place, a large bureaucracy on legal immigration.

So the first thing we have to do is make it easier to come into this country legally.

And the second thing that we have to do is what I've said evaluate who is here.

Washington state depends on a lot of these immigrants for our economy.

And I am going to be a champion of them.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

Senator Cantwell, you'll have one minute on the rhetoric point in particular.

It is horrible and everybody should speak against it.

And now every minute of national news is Donald Trump saying that immigrants have caused this problem, this problem, this problem, including taking money out of FEMA, that they don't have to help and respond to the storm.

Demonizing the backbone of who built America is not the way to go.

And I do believe in the Dream act, and I lament the fact that when I came to the Senate, Orrin Hatch and others sponsored the Dream act.

There are still people who sponsor the Dream act, but they don't necessarily get it over the goal line.

They will help defeat it if it's a party line vote.

And what I think is so important, when I did the Chips and Science Act, I said to my colleagues, let's just let people stay who've been educated here and who have a PhD.

And basically they said no.

I said, just tell me how many that will help us be competitive and keep our defense.

How many will you let stay here?

And they said, no.

Thank you, Senator.

All right.

I want to turn to another topic.

You've both made a major focus of your respective campaigns, and that's fentanyl.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have killed about 75,000 Americans in each of the last two years, according to the CDC.

Over the past year, drug overdose deaths have fallen nationwide, but they've increased here in Washington state.

Everyone in Congress agrees this is a problem, but what would you do differently to address it?

We'll start with Senator Cantwell.

Well, the first thing we did was pass the Fend Off Fentanyl Act, which created a national emergency and gave the president new tools to go after cartels like the one that was in the press recently to stop the flow of fentanyl.

We also passed money as part of our appropriations process to put more money at the border for tools for detection and surveillance and to stop to help stop the flow of fentanyl.

But I also am supporting federal legislation that is looking at our entire transportation system and next generation technologies to detect the vapors that are coming from fentanyl so we can stop its flow.

I do also support a treatment process that is more streamlined.

The University of Washington has established that has shown a 68% reduction in fentanyl deaths.

That's what I'm fighting for.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia 60.

That should read 60s and we'll give you.

Thank you.

I walked 185 miles from Toppenish to Seattle to elevate the awareness of this crisis in this country.

There's a human being dying every four minutes, and 40s.

This is a crisis, and we need to make harsh decisions.

And I think that this is where we differ.

Senator Cantwell and I, my first bill as your U.S.

Senator, is going to be the Americans Against Fentanyl Act, which will give manslaughter, felony charges to drug dealers and put them in prison and apply involuntary mandatory rehabilitation for addicts.

As a doctor, I can tell you that Addiction's brain will tell the individual to lie, cheat and steal to get that next fix, or they're going to die.

And this is why has to be involuntary.

Everybody that has succeeded in treatment has always come back and said, thank you for making that decision for me when I couldn't make it for myself.

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator Cantwell, you have 30s.

I fight every day for our state in the United States Senate.

But I'll tell you how I do it.

I listen to the people in our state and what they say.

And the University of Washington are leading research institution in this area, said a program that is low barrier and can be in the community is the best way to do this.

In fact, they went to the state legislature and Republican and Democrats signed up for that.

That's not the plan of Doctor Garcia's.

This is the plan that our state wants, and it reduces death by 68%.

Thank you, Senator.

And Doctor Garcia, would you like to respond?

Yeah.

The difference between my, fentanyl listening tour and Senator Cantwell is that I actually go down to the street and I talk to the addicts, not the media, not community organizers, the people that are involved.

And they tell us, you need an iron fist.

You need to end this, or we're going to lose our country.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

We're going to turn back to the video screen for another question from a Gonzaga student.

Hello.

My name is Laura Erickson, and I'm a student at Gonzaga University.

And this is my question.

Spokane reports a 37% increase in the homeless population between 2022 and 2023, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce, 13,000 Washington youth ages 12 to 24 are on the street or in unsafe or unstable housing situations.

If elected, what steps would you take to help remedy this crisis?

Thank you.

All right.

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

The homeless problem, solution has to be a triple play solution.

As a scientist, I could tell you that you have to go to the root of the cause.

The first step is drug rehabilitation.

The second step is mental health.

And the third step is housing, not housing first.

This is why this program has been so ineffective.

The same with harm reduction.

We are telling addicts here are the needles.

Here's the pipe.

Here's the foil.

Here's a low barrier housing.

So you could do your drugs.

This is all do I think is a stepping a step in the right direction.

This is not a destination.

We need a true solution.

We need to take these individuals out of that environment and the homeless crisis.

We need to do it in that order.

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, it's a mischaracterization to think that everybody who is homeless is on drugs.

I know a woman from my town, even Edmonds, Washington, who literally lost her apartment because it had mold.

And she was, she had to leave and didn't have any place to go and literally lived in her car.

So this issue is about building supply.

There is a study that shows for every 2300 units of more affordable supply you build, you drive down the cost about $2,000, an annual rent cost.

We need to build more supply.

Spokane knows this, and that's why places like Gonzaga, Haven and other affordable housing projects are done.

I've worked in a bipartisan basis in the United States Senate to lead the the bill that will help us build these affordable units.

Thank you, Senator and Doctor Garcia, you'll have 30s.

Again, we need to go to the root cause.

Those mothers that lose, their house and and are out there with a child.

Of course, that's our first priority.

But the people that are in the street that do not want to get out of the street need to be taken out of that environment and given the resources to be brought back to the families.

Until when are we going to perpetuate this behavior in this permissive society that we live in today?

Thank you.

Doctor.

Senator Cantwell, would you like to respond?

Well, I just think Gonzaga Haven, if anybody can just look it up, is a perfect example.

Love this project.

Help got funding for them here in Spokane.

It literally reunited families that became homeless and were torn apart.

And the whole mission of Gonzaga Haven is to also give them access to child care and to get them back into their education system so that they can be trained and skilled and productive members of society.

That is a great example and should be followed by other places.

Thank you Senator.

I'd like to talk now about health care.

Americans spend more on healthcare per person than any other wealthy country in the world.

Yet we have some of the worst health outcomes among those countries.

By measures including life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and diabetes rates.

What should Congress do to improve our nation's health care system?

I'll start with Senator Cantwell.

Well, I mentioned earlier value-based purchasing because it basically says you're paying for the outcomes in our health care delivery system.

But just think about what we were able to do when the Inflation Reduction Act.

We saved billions of dollars for American consumers by just saying the federal government, just like Costco, can negotiate.

In fact, we negotiate for veterans now and drive down their costs by about 25%.

So why shouldn't we have that same ability to negotiate across all prescription drug purchases, not just for Medicare?

This is the way to save billions of dollars in our national system.

And that's why I fight and advocate for it.

Thank you, Senator doctor Garcia.

Well, being an emergency physician.

I'm deeply into this situation where I live in a state where I couldn't place patients.

We ranked 50th in the United States for medical bed availability.

So health care is a big issue.

But we're not talking about the pink elephant in the room.

The power of health care today are in insurance companies.

And it should be in the hands of doctors and patients.

And a person from Washington state should have the right to get a quote from an insurance from Alabama, from Florida, from New Jersey that balances more of the power towards the patient.

I'm also not sure that insurance companies should be in Wall Street.

I have patients that need an approval on an MRI and don't get it, but that insurance company has make sure under the bottom line on that quarter.

Thank you.

Is good.

Thank you doctor.

Senator Cantwell.

Well, this may be something where doctor Garcia and I agree on, because these pharmacy benefit manager middlemen that Chuck Grassley and I are trying to fight in the United States Senate are basically taking over prescription drug market markets.

They literally become the third or fourth highest entities on Wall Street, because they have so much power to determine the the cost of prescription drugs.

And I have legislation, and we're going to get it passed with Chuck Grassley's help to stop their bad practices.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia, would you like to elaborate?

Yeah.

And we also need the reimbursement to be higher.

You know, back in 2008, I went into Senator Cantwells office, and I told her that our reimbursement in Washington was one of the lowest in the state in the country, that we needed to bring it up.

Her answer to me was, well, we're going to bring everybody's reimbursement down to our level.

So we're in an even playing field.

This makes us lose resources in the state of Washington.

We need our reimbursements to be better.

Thank you, Doctor Garcia.

Like to move on to online privacy and technology.

Major U.S. tech companies, some of which, of course, are headquartered here in Washington state, have become some of the most powerful companies in the world.

That's partly because unlike about 80% of the world's population, Americans are not protected by a national law governing how those companies can collect and use our personal data.

Senator Cantwell, you've, of course, made data privacy a focus of yours for years.

But the U.S. remains the only major developed country in the world without a nationwide privacy standard.

What should Congress do to regulate the tech industry?

We'll start with Doctor Garcia.

Well, I think that all of us, have answered yes to every, online, subscription that we have that we agree with their terms and conditions and some of those terms and conditions is that they're going to share our information.

Yes.

Our government should protect our citizens.

We should have privacy in what we do with our lives, and that we should be the owners of, not these companies.

And I do think that Congress has a place to come in and regulate that privacy for the benefit of our citizens.

That is our job to protect our rights and to protect what we have here in America.

And privacy should be number one.

Thank you, Senator Cantwell.

Yeah, just I want to clear up something on that last point.

Value-based purchasing is how you get more money for Washington.

That is what we got in the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act has worked.

It has expanded care throughout our state.

Hundreds of thousands of people lower, uninsured.

On privacy, I am fighting very hard with Cathy McMorris Rodgers to pass a federal Privacy Act that would say the American people deserve to have a privacy right.

And if these companies or the government are misusing your information, you have the ability to go take action against them.

That privacy rights should be if you've caused harm to our citizen.

Now, when we reach the AI age and people are using our own information against us, it is time to pass a law.

Unfortunately, we passed two kids privacy bills over to the House of Representatives, and Republicans killed those.

We are trying to get people like Ted Cruz and others to agree to do privacy.

But so far, Cathy and I, we're not giving up.

We're going to get this done because Americans deserve this right.

Thank you, Senator.

I apologize because we're short on time.

We're going to proceed right to closing statements here.

And we'll start with Senator Cantwell.

Well, thank you again to the to Spokesman-Review, Black Lens and everyone and, Doctor Garcia.

This election couldn't be more important about the future direction of our country.

Are we going to grow the middle class again, which we've started with this incredible surge of bringing manufacturing and supply chain back to the United States with higher wage jobs?

Are we going to lower costs?

Like I said, that we've been able to do for seniors, but now spread that out across a larger population.

Are we going to build more affordable housing, as I mentioned, and continue to lead on this issue with a low income housing tax credit?

Are we going to invest in apprenticeships to train and skill for the jobs of tomorrow that are here today?

So people can make those six figure incomes.

Spokane is on the precipice of this.

You've made the right investments.

I'm asking for your support in the US Senate race.

Thank you.

Senator.

Doctor Garcia.

Well, thank you, everyone, for giving me this great opportunity.

My intent was to instill in you the confidence and the hope that together, we could have a better Washington.

You know, change is hard.

But Senator Cantwell will now have asked us four times to give her another chance of making it right.

I am asking you for one.

One chance at bringing true solutions to our problems.

We could keep voting the same way and keep having the same problems outside our window and doors.

Or you could take the leap of faith on this skinny Cuban kid that fought hard to achieve the American dream.

And I promise you that as your next United States Senator, every step, every action, every breath I take every day will be to represent the will of the people of Washington, to honor the greatest country in the world.

And to pay her back for everything it does for us.

Thank you.

And that concludes today's debate.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.